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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

I mentioned my growing collection of different types of flour the other day, and now there’s one more variety in the bin. Coconut flour joined the party as soon as I saw these cookies in Good to the Grain. I bought Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour which is made from ground, organic coconuts, and it has the same sweet, warm smell of fresh coconut. I was thinking this flour would be good in pancakes, and as luck would have it, there’s a buttermilk coconut pancake recipe on the back of the flour package. But, about these cookies, they’re made with just coconut flour and barley flour with no all-purpose or wheat flour included. There’s also coconut milk in them, and each ball of dough was rolled in shredded, unsweetened coconut before being placed on a cookie sheet. Three sources of coconut was a sure sign that Kurt was going to be happy with these. They were tender, cakey cookies full of coconut flavor. Warm from the oven, they were melt-in-your-mouth good, but I also liked them after they’d been refrigerated overnight. I usually don’t go for cold cookies, but these were an exception to the rule. Once cold, they were a little firmer, and for whatever reason, I like shredded coconut when it’s cold.

Making this dough was just a little different from most other cookie recipes. The dry ingredients were sifted together, and those were barley flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Then, eggs were beaten in a stand mixer and then granulated and brown sugars were added and mixed with the eggs. Next, the dry ingredients were added and mixed until combined before room temperature butter was added. I felt a little uncomfortable adding the butter after the dry ingredients, but following the butter, coconut milk and vanilla were added. Last, some of the shredded unsweetened coconut was mixed into the dough which came together just fine. I used a scoop to make balls of dough which were rolled in more shredded coconut, and the cookies baked for about 20 minutes.

When I asked Kurt if he liked the cookies, his response was: of course, they’re made with coconut. So, if you like coconut, you’ll like these cookies. I liked these cookies for the true coconut flavor, for the just-right level of sweetness, and for the tender, cakey texture. Now, I’m off to attempt coconut pancakes and experiment with other ways to use this flour.

I'm drooling. My husband doesn't like shredded coconut. It's a texture thing since he likes coconut flavor obtained through coconut milk. Do you think I could skip rolling them in the shredded coconut to make coconut cookies that we both can enjoy? Thanks!

Christine: You definitely could skip rolling the dough in the shredded coconut, but the shredded coconut that's mixed into the dough is needed. Without the shredded coconut in the dough, I think it would be too loose. However, since unsweetened shredded coconut is so small, it blends into the dough and really isn't noticeable inside the cookies.

I actually have coconut flour. I bought it when i was in my macaron phase and thought I'd try it in place of the almond flour. That never happened, but these look amazing. I loooooooooooove coconut.*kisses* HH

Just had a bun (filled with taro paste), topped with toasted coconut this morning. The coconut definitely is a plus point to the soft bun. So I bet these coconut cookies smell and taste heavenly. I did not bake it of course. Bought it from a Chinese bakery.

Coconut flour? How cool is that! So if you used the flour in anything, would you end up with a coconut flavor no matter what? Like if you made shortbread cookies or used it to dust chicken with? Hmmm, the possibilities are very intriguing.

Carolyn: With just coconut flour, the flavor would be very subtle. Also, for cookies, it needs to be mixed with another type of flour to prevent the final product from being gummy. I like the idea of dusting chicken with it though.

Oh wow, I love the thought of trying coconut flour. If I had more room, I'd have a variety of flours too. I bet these would be super tasty. The only think I might change is a bit of contact with chocolate, but there is nothing wrong with pure coconut.